Local & State Headlines

Owner set to close track

• A Dougherty County Commission vote precedes the closing of the Albany Motor Speedway.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — There were plenty of numbers that emerged from the Dougherty County Commission’s vote Monday on whether to allow the racing of vehicles other than Legends cars at the Albany Motor Speedway.

There were the two votes that Commissioner John Hayes’ motion not to allow the racing received. And there were four votes to approve Commission Chair Jeff Sinyard’s alternate motion that the racing be allowed with the stipulation that a 25-foot berm be built at the track.

Would-be track owner Tim Pafford was given 10 days to agree to the stipulation, and if he agreed, he had eight months to complete the berm.

But at the end of the day — following a round of afternoon meetings, wrangling and numbers crunching — the lone number that mattered was zero ... as in the amount of racing that fans can expect after current track owner Bill Farnsworth pulled the plug on the venue Monday afternoon.

“Racing at the Albany Motor Speedway is over,” Pafford, whose planned purchase of the track was contingent upon the vote of the commission, said late Monday. “We put a sign up this afternoon that said ‘Closed Due to Commission.’

“We put a message on our answering machine telling racing fans that Commissioners Jack Stone and Mrs. (Muarlean) Edwards had the courage to do what was right but that Commissioners (Lamar) Hudgins, Mr. (John) Hayes, Mr. (Chuck) Lingle and Mr. (Art) Searles were the ones they should contact because they’re the ones who voted to kill racing in Dougherty County.”

Farnsworth, the owner of the Beef O’Brady’s restaurant currently open in Lee County and one under construction near Darton College, had petitioned the commission for permission to race stock cars, trucks, go-carts, four-wheelers, and motorized and non- motorized bikes at the track in addition to Legends cars, which was the only type of vehicle that had previously been granted permission by the commission to race at the track.

If given permission, Pafford — with an assist from Bob Brooks, one of the county’s most prominent landowners — was going to buy the track. However, neighborhood groups in Radium Springs and Putney complained to commissioners that noise at the track was disruptive and asked that they not grant Farnsworth’s petition.

After holding public hearings on the matter, trying to work a compromise with the two sides and then twice putting off a final vote, the commission took up the matter at the end of its business session Monday. Stone and Edwards, while saying they sympathized with the neighborhood groups, came out in support of allowing the racing.

Hayes, who noted that the economic development issue with the track was an important one, ultimately said that quality-of-life issues for the citizens who had complained about the noise was more important.

“I can’t ignore that,” Hayes said, “and I don’t see how I could support this measure (to allow racing of all types of vehicles).”

Shortly after making that statement, Hayes offered a motion that the commission deny the request for permission to race additional vehicles. Lingle seconded.

Sinyard then offered an alternate motion that the track be allowed to stay open, but that a 25-foot berm be built for noise abatement. Hayes and Lingle voted to approve the initial motion, then Hudgins, Sinyard, Searles and Edwards voted to approve the second.

Stone voted for neither.

“I was not going to vote for the alternate motion, because that was just like voting to close the track,” he said. “Asking a small businessman to build a berm like that was just something he wasn’t going to be able to do.”

Pafford complained after the meeting that such a berm, which he estimated would cost “more than one and a quarter million dollars” would not be as effective in noise abatement as the measures he agreed to take to cut noise at the track. Those measures included requiring mufflers on all vehicles, racing only at certain hours and adding a prescribed 10-foot berm.

“The things I agreed to do were going to cut noise more than that berm they voted on,” he said after the meeting. “The fact of the matter is, they were looking for a way to shut me down so that they didn’t come off as looking like they were anti-business. I wish they’d just had the balls to vote no in the first place.

“We had 26,000 folks out at our place the last two months, and I guarantee you that’s more than anything else that’s been in this county during that time. I love the Wildcats, but they don’t have close to as many folks come to their games as we do in a month. And their schedule has only eight home games; we had 40.”

Pafford, Brooks and Farnsworth initially talked about the feasibility of keeping the track open after the vote, but later in the afternoon Farnsworth said the track was being shut down.

“This puts a big hurt on the area; the citizens are going to lose as much as we are,” he said. “With the stipulations put on us by the commission, we have no choice but to shut down. We’ll start piecing everything out and selling it right away.”

Sinyard said he was disappointed in the owners’ decision to close the track.

“That’s the last thing I wanted,” he said Monday evening. “My whole idea was to deal with noise abatement and try to keep the track open. Mr. Pafford said we had a vendetta against him, but I tried to keep personalities out of it. I wanted to do what was best for our citizens.”

Pafford said he was preparing his next step, which could end up playing out in a courtroom.

“Oh, we’re going to court,” Pafford said. “My next step is to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the county and a separate multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Radium Springs Homeowners Association. I was discriminated against and slandered during this ordeal, so I’m taking them to court.”

In other action at the meeting, commissioners were introduced to Kimberly Smith, the new director of the county’s Department of Family and Children Services; heard a report from Woody Hicks, chair of the Citizens Greenspace Advisory Committee; and Sinyard presented a copy of a proclamation setting May 7 as National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in Dougherty County to Angie Barber, Hope Harrelson and Tracy Short from Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Network of Trust.

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